Senate Bill 639A, which passed the Senate 18-12 and the House 45-13 last week, defines a
digital billboard as a sign with rotating static images no quicker than
every eight seconds and doesn’t “create the appearance of movement.” The
measure also limits brightness and requires the signs to be powered
with renewable energy sources if available or for the company to
purchase carbon credits to offset their power use. To become law, the
bill must receive the governor’s approval.

The
proposal faced multiple political detours since a 2007 interim
committee decided studies were inconclusive about the billboards' safety
and legislators debated reforms for regulating all billboards.

“I’m
not in love with the amendments,” Starr said. “But I believe there are
significant public interest reasons for having these billboards across
the state.”

Starr
and Beyer pointed out that digital billboards offer opportunities to
instantly make public service announcements such as Amber Alerts or
about upcoming road hazards. Non-profits have supported the measure because it would reduce their printing costs.

“There’s
some real benefits of what you can do digitally that you can’t do if
you have to paste a picture up on the sign,” Beyer said.